Today – Although Halloween, celebrated this day, is now observed largely as a secular holiday, it is, as the eve of All Saints’ Day, also a religious holiday among some Christians.
1517 – Martin Luther sends his 95 Theses to Albrecht von Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, precipitating The Protestant Reformation
1541 – Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes painting “The Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
1632 – Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, whose paintings are among the most beloved and revered images in the history of art, was baptized.
1876 – Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh), over 200,000 killed
1918 – Spanish Flu kills 21,000 people in the US in a single week
1941 – After nearly 15 years of work, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota was completed; the colossal sculpture features the heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered an end to American bombing in North Vietnam.
1984 – Rajiv Gandhi takes office as India’s 6th Prime Minister succeeding his mother Indira Gandhi who was assassinated
1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh at her home in New Delhi
1993 – Rapper Tupac Shakur charged with aggravated assault
1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
2003 – Bethany Hamilton, aged 13, has her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing in Hawaii
2008 – Whitepaper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” is published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It describes a decentralized peer-to-peer network that could track and verify transactions while producing a transparent, verifiable record.
2011 – The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations
2015 – Russian airliner crashes killing all 224 on board in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt – Russia’s worst air disaster
2017 – Terrorist attack in New York when a truck mows down people on a cycle lane, killing 8, injuring 10
2019 – Jihadist group Islamic State names Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as its new leader after US special forces kill its former leader
2019 – Gas canister explodes on a train in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakaistan killing at least 70 and injuring 30
Births & Deaths:
1926 – Harry Houdini, the magician and escape artist, died of peritonitis stemming from a stomach injury.
2008 – American author and oral historian Studs Terkel, who chronicled the lives of Americans from the Great Depression to the early 21st century, died in Chicago.
Film & TV:
1962 – “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” horror film released directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, based on novel by Henry Farrell
1964 – Barbra Streisand’s “People” album goes #1 for 5 weeks
Sport:
1987 – American jockey Chris Antley becomes first rider to win 9 races in a day (4 at Aqueduct / 5 at The Meadowlands)
Via Britannica / On This Day
